The weather here is predicted to be 'unsettled' so I may be spending a whole lot of time in traffic between the holiday, the weather and events so will probably be working small things inside. No major storms so the equipment can stay out, but just enough and consistent enough to make planning to work inside a good thing - now I need to plan on exactly what that means LOL.

I actually live on the top ridge of a mountain, and events of the past few days have brought all kinds of low flying helicopters buzzing my home - flat bodied types that seem military as well as more regular types; flying in formation at times. Anyway, the dogs handled it well yesterday and hopefully I can get them out today for some more distraction work - President Obama will be landing in Hartford this afternoon so there will probably be more activity as he makes his way to Newtown. I definitely have no plans to be on the highways today - I live between the airport and Newtown - so any round-abouts will be local. And although seeing the President might be exciting, the hurting families need their privacy

I am going to class Monday nite but I already know I can't do a fast but should be able to do most of the other exercises . I know my surgery was needed but it has really messed up Nuggets training but we will make it up he is a smart little guy and for a couple extra treats we will be back sooner than later.

@Nugget's Dad - I'm glad to see you back. Was wondering when you went mia last week. o_O

@training - we skipped class last week because I was under the weather. I'm hoping to take both boys to class with me. The good thing is Bertie is OK in the car so if he starts barking in class (I hate barking and I know it drives our instructor nuts), I can just trot him back out to the car.

I'm only concerned about barking because as he gets more interested in training (he loves training), he's getting more rambunctious about being left out. <- And I was worrying about Jack! Jacks is an angel while I train Bertsie. o_O

Glad you are back training!! Extra treats and attention work never goes to waste in a class

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nuggetsdad

I am going to class Monday nite but I already know I can't do a fast but should be able to do most of the other exercises . I know my surgery was needed but it has really messed up Nuggets training but we will make it up he is a smart little guy and for a couple extra treats we will be back sooner than later.

We went to Agility class last Friday and tomorrow night I teach classes. We are also having our holiday party at the training center.. I have to start working Titan again soon.. we have a show coming up in a couple weeks.

I trained Bertie this evening - our usual training walking next to me with attention, halt-sits when I stopped walking, scoot sits, treat toss comes, and even scoot fronts. I figure with my issues with Jacks having a problem with his crooked-butt fronts, it's never too soon to start training scoot fronts. And we finished up by doing touches to a target clipped to a baby gate. I even got him to do a touch from 2 feet away. He's just delicious!

And that was supposed to be it for him this evening.

I trained fronts and drops with Jacks and then took him downstairs to practice high jumps.

At first I had Bertie loose, but because he knows what training means (FOOD!), he's underfoot and velcro and competing for heel and front position. He knocked the jump over twice (paw slapped it right in front of Jacks!) and that was the point where the kid got to hang out by himself in our computer room.

Jacks' jumps were tentative at first (he had the jump DROP right in front of him thanks to baby bro), but as soon as the dumbbell came out, he was a very happy boy. Retrieved nicely each time, right over the jump. I bumped it up to 22" and worked on treat toss jumps since we haven't done anything jumpwise in a week. Again he did awesome.

So put the jump away and practiced heeling - with the highly distractive squawling from inside the computer room (Bert doesn't bark, but will howl and make bear noises when unhappy). Jacks feels so HUGE compared to Bertie! Especially his head! I love him so much!

I did a few more drops and then let Bertie out since there was nothing for him to knock over and I knew the "competition" would get Jacks rushing a bit. Jacks did very nice drops. I worked on my "I really mean it!" hand signal.

Then I put Jacks in stays once more to work on retrieves with Bertie.... <- The unique experience of training a 12 week old puppy is that right in the middle of doing something, he will suddenly stop and run up to his potty door with the message he had to go out NOW. We finished up the retrieves, did some with Jacks.... and then on a whim I pulled out Jacks wooden dumbbell to see what Bertie would do.

I praised/marked every time he reached up to put his mouth on the bit - and released him immediately. And I'm wondering if this is a combination of the dumbbell being lighter and the bit narrower, but I don't remember Jacks offering "take" that readily.

Jacks was watching us from where he was practicing sit stays, so I released him and did a few take/holds with him. And Jacks worked his heart out to do his holds. No bobbling in his mouth, no hinge jaw holds....

And that was about it. So we did our Monday night training, even though classes don't resume for another 3 weeks or so....

Traing went better than I thought it would after a two week absence. Recalls fast and straight sits got one lag on Fiq. 8 sits and downs he did 3 and5 minutes and dogs were breaking all around him. Heeling was good not perfect but good and the stand also good. Guess I don't have a right to get more from an almost 8 mos. especially after a two week break. Nugget did get some extra treats!!!

Haven't done much training, but had a private lesson last night.
She showed me a technique to get his attention before we enter the ring and as we begin heeling. That goes to the top of my list, something we can practice in the house. Will be interesting to see if it works.